TMI Blog1997 (10) TMI 390X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct Judge. It appears from the Judgement under Appeal that the appellant placed on Section 39(3) of Punjab Courts Act which enabled him as a Senior Sub-Judge to hear appeals under certain circumstances and contended that he must be deemed to be discharging the function of a District Judge at least for the purpose of payment of salary. He also placed reliance on Article 236(a) of the Constitution of India which defines the expression `District Judge'. It has also been contended before the High Court that in the face of upgrading the post of Chief Magistrate, the denial of same privilege to the post of Senior Subordinate Judge was arbitrary and unsustained in law. The High Court in its considered and reasoned judgment found that the post of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate were rightly upgraded and in any event by holding that the said posts of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate were wrongly upgraded, the appellant was not going to get any relief on the account. However, the High Court made it clear that they have not examined the correctness of the allegations of the petitioner before it (appe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uch Subordinate Judge of First Class at Delhi shall be deemed to be a District Court for the purpose of hearing appeals only the Subordinate Judge is deemed to be a District Court. A Senior Subordinate Judge, like other Subordinate Judges, is empowered to hear suits of a becuniary value which the other Subordinate Judge can hear. It is in addition to that Power to try the suit that a limited jurisdiction is given to hear appeals in certain cases. I cannot be that the petitioner on a single day, when he is hearing entitled to higher salary but when he is trying a suit he is entitled to the pay and allowances like that of a Subordinate Judge. Furthermore. in the notification itself the petitioner has been described as Shri G.P. Thareja, Sub-Judge is Ist Class, Delhi . The High Court has always regarded him, while he was working as Senior Subordinate Judge, as a Subordinate Judge Ist Class and not as a District Court. The fiction which is created by a law cannot be extended beyond the purposes all appeals from the Subordinate Judge ordinarily lie to the District Court it is only for the purpose of appeals of limited pecuniary jurisdiction that the Senior Subordinate Judge is auhto ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the purposes or such appeals preferred to it. However the Delhi Administration included only the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and Addl. Metropolitan Magistrate on the ground on the ground that those posts were expressly mentioned in the definition of District Judge under Article 236(a). When the Delhi High Court again pressed for the inclusion of the posts of Senior Sub Judge/Additional Senior Sub Judge and Judge, Small Causes Court, the following reply was sent by Delhi Administration on 12.8.1991:- Sub:- upgradation of the posts of Senior Sub Judge/Additional Sr. Sub-Judge and Judge Small Causes Court for inclusion in the Delhi Higher Judicial Services. Sir, I am directed to refer to your D.O. letter No. 116/Gaz/CW/DHJS dated 2nd March, 1991 on the above subject and to convey that the matter has been considered carefully in the consultation with the Department of Legal Affairs. It is regretted that, having regard to the relevant provisions of Article 236 of the Constitution of India which define the expression `District Judge' and `Judicial Service'. the posts of Sr. Sub- Judge/Additional Sr. Sub- Judge/Judge, Small Cause Court be upgraded and inc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e already noted, it has been contended by the petitioner that the principle behind Article 236(a) should be extended and a Senior Subordinate Judge should be regarded as Assistant District Judge and the Judge Small Cause Court should be regarded as Chief Judge, Small Cause Court. The extension of a principle may be a good reason for the Government to take an administrative decision to upgrade a post and place it in the High Judicial Service. Judicially however, it is not possible for us to interpret the expressions Assistant District Judge and Chief Judge Small Cause Court it mean Senior Subordinate Judge or Judge Small Cause Court. In effect what the petitioner wants this Court to do is to deem the Assistant District Judge to mean Senior Subordinate Judge and Chief Judge, Small Cause Court. It is indeed authoritatively settled by the Supreme Court in the case of Union of India vs. Tej Ram Parashramji Bombhate (AIR 1992 SC 570) that the Court or a Tribunal has no power to compel the Government to change its policy involving expenditure and to direct the creation of any post. What the petitioner, in effect, wants this Court to do is to issue a writ directing the creating of po ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r good and sufficient reasons be imposed upon members of the ministerial staff:- (i) Censure. (ii) Fine of an amount not exceeding one month's salary for misconduct or neglect in the performance of duties. (iii) Recovery from pay of the whole or part of any pecuniary loss caused to Government by negligence or breach of orders, (iv) withholding of increments or promotion including stoppage at an efficiency bar, (v) Reduction to a lower post or time scale or to a lower state in a time scale, (vi) Suspension, (vii) Removal, and (viii) Dismissal (2) (a) Any of the above penalties may be inflicted by the District Judge, on the ministerial officers of his own court or any court subordinate to him other than a court of small Causes, and on the menials of his own Court. (b) The Judge of a Court of Small Causes may inflict any of the above the penalties on the ministerial officers menials of his own Court. (c) The District Judge may, with the previous sanction of the High Court, delegate to any Subordinate Judge the power to inflict penalties given in clause (a) to be exercised by the subordinate Judge in any specified portion of the district subject to the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e uniformity recommended by the Law Commission has to work out. 14. We are inclined to adopt the view of the Law Commission. On the civil side, the State Judicial Service, therefore, should be classified as District or Additional District Judge, Civil Judge (senior division) and Civil Judge (Junior divisions). On the criminal side, there should be a Sessions Judge or Additional Sessions Judge and below him there should be the Chief Judicial Magistrate and Magistrates provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Appropriate adjustment, if any, may be made of existing posts by indicating their equivalence with any of these categories. The process of bringing about such uniformity would require some item and perhaps some monitoring. We direct that the Ministry of Law and Justice of the Union Government would carry on the monitoring activity and all the States and Union Territories would follow the pattern indicated above by March 31, 1993. Article 236(a) reads as follows:- (a) the expression `district judge' includes judge of a city civil court, additional district judge, joint district judge, assistant district judge, chief judge of a small cause court. Chief presidenc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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